1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system storage, and more particularly to a system and method for information handling system interoperable firmware storage.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems typically include a number of physical components that run under the control of an operating system. The operating system runs on the central processing unit of the information handling system and interacts with other components through a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). The BIOS is generally firmware that runs on multiple integrated processors in a system chipset, such as the INTEL ICH7M chipset. In some systems, specifically portable information handling systems, an embedded controller interfaces with the chipset to handle keyboard and power management functions. The embedded controller typically includes its own flash memory and BIOS firmware. The design of the chipset and embedded controller firmware presents a substantial challenge since multiple physical devices are involved that reside in multiple areas of the motherboard, reside in multiple voltage planes, communicate through multiple bus topologies and have multiple degrees of security.
These challenges have increased with the complexity of information handling systems resulting in greater amounts of firmware code and increased flash memory requirements. Increased BIOS storage have led to increased ISA flash memory density pincount to maintain access speed. Greater pincounts result in an increase in footprint with corresponding difficulties impacting motherboard layout. In addition, increased pincounts for greater access speeds, such as are available with single chip firmware hub solutions, increases system expense. An alternative is to integrate flash with components, such as the embedded controller, but integrated flash increases costs and introduces delays for upgrades as new die is designed, tested and produced. As a possible solution, Serial Peripheral Interface ROMs are sometimes added to chipsets. However SPI speed is slow so that execution of firmware from SPI is limiting. The slow access speeds of SPI make it impractical for an embedded controller to effectively control an information handling system without shadowing the ROM, which increases system cost.